Cirrus increases production rate

In a communication to its employees, Cirrus Aircraft announced on April 30 that it is increasing its production rate to six aircraft per week, starting immediately. The increased rate follows nearly six months of significantly reduced production rates that averaged two to three fewer units per week than the new rate.

“We continue to see very encouraging trends in sales activities and interest from sales prospects domestically and around the world,” the memo stated. “The introduction of the new model year lineup in early January – including FIKI; Cirrus Perspective by Garmin across the line; X-Edition and more – have us very well positioned in the market place. Clearly, this is an upward move and is indicative of a stronger bias toward growth in aircraft orders. At the same time, targeted production output will continue to be determined on a month-to-month basis as this flexibility allows us to favorably position the organization to meet market fluctuations.”

Although production is increasing, that “will result in minimal impact to direct labor headcount” at the moment, the memo said, “due in large part to recent significant efficiency gains achieved as a result of ongoing lean production initiatives.”

“Though we remain in a very challenging environment, our hope is that this new rate is the first step and initial indicator of what will become a more substantial trend into the second half of the year and beyond,” the memo concluded.